Maddy Karlick
11/28/14
Roberto Ascalon
English 101
The Literacy of Fan Fiction
This essay discusses the ideas of several writers' concepts and how they relate to the community of fan fiction. The author used the framing technique by framing fan fiction around the ideas of Rebecca Shaffner, Henry Jenkins, Mary Lousie Pratt, James Paul Gee, and Kathleen Blake Yancey and their ideas on fan fiction, affinity spaces, contact zones, and literacy. In conclusion, the author asks questions of how fan fiction relates to each of these concepts and gives evidence of how they are similar.
In today's 21st century, literacy has so many different meanings and forms. According to Kathleen Blake Yancey in Make Not Only in Words: Compositions in an New Key, she talks about literacy being expressed only through reading and writing in the early years but has developed and expanded over the past hundred years. Literacy used to mean simply reading and writing on paper. With technological advances, literacy now means reading and writing through books and essays and through screens such as media, blogs, and online websites. One example of these sites is fan fiction. Fan fiction is an online sight as to where people can read and write stories that are based off of other authors' work. However, can fan fiction be considered one of Yancey's new forms of literacy?
Yancey discusses the use of literacy in schooling in America in the 19th century and how it was confined in the walls of a classroom, but now in the 21st century, literacy is expanding and writing is crossing borders rather than just staying in a classroom. "According to these assessments—an alphabet soup of assessments, the SAT, the NEAP, the ACT—writing IS 'words on paper,' composed on the page with a pen or pencil by students who write words on paper, yes—but who also compose words and images and create audio files on web logs (blogs), in word processors, with video editors and Web editors and in e-mail and on presentation software and in instant messaging and on listservs and on bulletin boards—and no doubt in whatever genre will emerge in the next ten minutes." (Yancey 177) With the invention of the computer and internet, there have been several new ways to express writing. It may not all be formal and the use of correct grammar is not important, however it is still an expression of literacy that is crucial to communication today.
Fan fiction is a community of millions of people across the globe that write and read and share ideas of stories created from ideas of other authors. Fan fiction is a prime example of what Yancey talks about in her essay. "Writers compose in the context of other writers and thinkers and speakers. They imitate them directly and indirectly; they quote them, write in direct reference to them, paraphrase them, and frame their own work in these contexts." (Yancey 190) Fan fiction writers do exactly that. Rebecca Shaffner seconds that idea in her essay In Defense of Fan Fiction when she states: "fan fiction is simply the practice of writing fiction based on other people's work." (Shaffner 119) They take books and movies such as Harry Potter or The Hunger Games and write stories about the characters and settings. They may decide to change a scene or create an alternate ending or write about what happens after the series ends. The possibilities are endless. Fan fiction is no doubt a 21st century invention that no one was told to create as an assignment for their high school English class. It was first created by someone, whose idea was taken by someone who created a website where others are allowed to build off of that idea and write their own fan fiction stories. It sounds confusing, but it is true. These writers probably use writing techniques and styles learned in the classroom and are bringing them into the outside world. Charles Bazerman and David Russell explain their theory in Yancey's essay by stating, "Writing is alive when it is being written, read, remembered, contemplated, followed — when it is part of human activity…" (Yancey 190) Fan fiction does exactly that. Fans read, remember, contemplate and follow writers' work then write about it in their own way. Henry Jenkins states in his article, Fan Fiction as Critical Commentary, "Elsewhere, I have argued that fan fiction emrges from a balance between fascination and frustration. If the original work did not fascinate fans, they would not continue to engage with it. If it did not frustrate them in some level, they would feel no need to write new stories."
Can fan fiction be constituted as a new form of writing that is beneficial to students around the world? Yancey writes about the development of writing throughout the past couple of centuries and the new emergences of writing types. Fan fiction fits into that category of new forms of writing, but is it beneficial? A large portion of fan fiction writers are teenagers that want to join a new supportive community where they can write freely without getting to harshly criticized. Shaffner even writes in her essay about younger generations getting involved in fan fiction. "Better yet, [fanfiction] is a community that many readers join in their pre-teens or teens, take at their own pace, and often never leave." (Shaffner 119) Depending on how deep they sink themselves into the world of fanfiction, they will read hundreds, maybe even thousands of other fan fiction stories a year on these websites. From these, they may incorporate new writing styles or processes into their work at school. They could learn new writing techniques and habits that are beneficial to their essays in class. These techniques could possibly even help them in the assessments Yancey talks about such as the SAT and ACT. The friends they make on these fan fiction websites could even help them to edit their papers and give feedback of what to do differently or what to continue doing. Fan fiction could be beneficial in the long run to teens and pre-teens because it is a writing technique learned outside of school that could potentially help them in school.
Mary Louise Pratt explains the idea of contact zones in her article Arts of the Contact Zone. Pratt describes contacts zones as "social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination-like colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out across the globe today." (Pratt 106) Can the community of fan fiction fit into the idea of contact zones though? An example of a contact zone can be America versus Great Britain in 1776 when we wanted independence then went to war to gain that independence. I'm sure fan fiction has its share of disputes over stories or movies and ideas clash. However, from what I've seen, fan fiction writers and readers seem to get along for the most part. The majority of negative comments are constructive and everyone is generally nice to everyone. On the other hand, Pratt also explains her idea of a safe house. "We used the term to refer to social and intellectual spaces where groups can constitute themselves as horizontal, homogeneous, sovereign communities with high degrees of trust, shared understandings, temporary protection from legacies of oppression." (Pratt 116) In my eyes, fan fiction is more of a place where people can go and think out loud and get feedback on ideas and stories. Shaffner states: "They (fans) write fanfiction, they leave comments, they draw and make vids and user icons, they friend each other on LiveJournal and DreamWidth and follow each other on twitter. And they do all of these things because there is someone on the other end who loves what they love." Fan fiction is a community of people who work together rather than cultures who fight and compete on whose stories are better. "It's not a competition: when a writer becomes popular, the response is the prize." (Shaffner 119)
James Paul Gee is another writer who introduced the idea of affinity spaces. In his essay titled Affinity Spaces: From Age of Mythology to Today's Schools, he describes affinity spaces as "a place or set of places where people affiliate with others based primarily on shared activities, interests, and goals, not shared race, class culture, ethnicity, or gender" (Gee 66) An example of an affinity space could be a fandom of a football team. Everyone is welcome to join and everyone has access to becoming a fan. There is no membership fee and you can join anytime you'd like. I believe fan fiction could be considered an affinity space because it is a space where anyone can join and has a large community of people. However, for a space to be considered an affinity space, Gee says they need to have portals and generators and content, which basically means it needs to be accessible and working. For example, it cannot be a group that is no longer existing. Because the world of fan fiction is mainly online, those who do not have a computer or internet cannot access this group. However, does this expel fan fiction from being an affinity space?
Writers such as Rebecca Shaffner, Henry Jenkins, Mary Lousie Pratt, James Paul Gee, and Kathleen Blake Yancey all write about their ideas and ways to think of the world. Before Gee, I had never thought of places as 'spaces' that are open to all and free of judgment. Before Pratt, I had never heard of contact zones or safe houses and how they apply to my life. All of these writers bring up good points and ideas that make you think and allow you to connect them to your life. Fan fiction seemed to fit into the category off all of their ideas. It works as an affinity space, a safe house, and in some cases, a contact zone. Fan fiction is a vast space that works in bringing people together in several ways.
Work Cited
Gee, James Paul. Affinity Spaces: From Age of Mythology to Today's Schools: Participating in Cultures of Writing and Reading
Greene, Stuart. Argument as Conversation: The Role of Inquiry in Writing a Researched Argument: Participating in Cultures of Writing and Reading
Pratt, Mary Louise. Arts of the Contact Zone: Participating in Cultures of Writing and Reading
Shaffner, Becca. In Defense of Fanfiction: Participating in Cultures of Writing and Reading
Yancey, Kathleen Blake. Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key: Participating in Cultures of Writing and Reading